Proclamations by Carter Riverside Class of ’52

Prologue to the Reading of Lon Goldstein Proclamation
By Charles Erwin

Every person here or that attended CRHS has a Goldstein spun story or experience.  He created many new words to add to our vocabulary.  Remember, no separate buildings for Junior and Senior High School, so six grades were together. We knew everyone and all the coaches and teachers.

I was a big fan of baseball – Major League, Texas League, Fort Worth Cats (Brooklyn Farm Club) and Big State League. Coach played for Cincinnati in the Major League and also in Big State League. He was known as Lon or Lonnie, but by accident I discovered his true name, Leslie Elmer. So I blabbed it all over school, and he rewarded me with three licks from the Board of Education. That’s when I learned about the right to privacy.

N.E and I were editors of Eagle Record in 1951 and 1952. So for a story, I referenced Coach about his career, his background, and his plans. I learned that his favorite food was groceries, learned he preferred shelling peas at Leonard Brothers rather than coaching or playing ball, and learned his goal was to be the champion at spitting watermelon seeds.

Tonight we honor Coach Goldstein by recognizing him as a member of the Class of 1952. Glen prepared this Proclamation, gathered the biographical information, and he gave me the privilege of presenting it. 

PROCLAMATION — COACH LON GOLDSTEIN

WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein was born on Monday, May 13, 1918, in Austin, Texas, but grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated from Poly High School and received a BS and a Masters at Texas Wesleyan University; and         
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein played fifteen seasons in professional baseball and broke into big league baseball on September 11, 1943, when he was 25 years old with the Cincinnati Reds as a pinch hitter and first baseman under name of Lonnie Goldstein; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein served his country for two and half years in the United States Army during World War II in 1944 which interrupted his baseball career before rejoining the Reds in the 1946 midseason; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein had an extraordinary minor league career in that he appeared in 1,571 games with 5,963 at-bats, belted 146 home runs and hit for a career average of .330 with only two seasons hitting under .300; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein retired from professional baseball in 1955 and is now recognized as one of the oldest living major league ballplayers at 94 years of age; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein taught school at Carter Riverside Junior and Senior School during the 1940s to 1963 where he is remembered for his wit and humor, ability to dispense nicknames, adding to student lexicon (He’s a molly!), and the proficient and the perpetual application of
the Board of Education; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein served with distinction in the Fort Worth ISD as Head of the Athletics Department and the school district honored him for his service by naming the Fort Worth ISD Baseball Complex – Lon Goldstein Field; and   
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein received recognition as Athletic Director of the Year 1975–76 for the state of Texas, and by being named to the Texas Wesleyan Hall of Fame, and for his induction to the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein continued his public service by moving to the Tarrant County Courts where he worked as a deputy sheriff and bailiff and where he earned a reputation for protocol firmness – “Don’t Mess With Coach”; and
WHEREAS, Lon Goldstein today still maintains his competitive nature in the game of Dominoes with his friends (though he eyes them lest they cheat), is tended to by son, Mike, and daughter, Patsy, and their families, and is remembered with delight by thousands of students who were touched professionally and
personally;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it
RESOLVED THAT we, the Class of 1952 of Carter Riverside High School of Fort Worth, Texas, at its Sixtieth Reunion on the 2nd day of June, 2012, do hereby declare and proclaim that Leslie E. “Lon” Goldstein be an honorary member of the Carter Riverside High School Class of 1952 with all rights and privileges thereof.


PROCLAMATION — COACH OREIN BROWNING
Presented by Eldridge Miles

WHEREAS, Orein Browning is a hometown boy who grew up in the Riverside community, attended Oakhurst Elementary, Riverside Junior High, and graduated from Carter Riverside High School Class of 1946; and
WHEREAS, Orein Browning cultivated a puritan work ethic early in life that was demonstrated by helping in the construction and house building business owned by his father, W.I. Browning, a prominent Fort Worth builder; and
WHEREAS, Orein Browning is a natural born athlete that found expression in various programs of high school sports and he was one of the nine athletes from Carter Riverside High School to be awarded a college scholarships his senior year; and     
WHEREAS, Orein Browning attended Texas Christian University on an athletic scholarship earning three letters in football and two in baseball; and   
WHEREAS, Orein Browning teammates at TCU included Carter Riverside teammates and outstanding alumni players such as Homer “Golden Toe” Ludiker, Jimmy Hunt, and Don Hunt, while opponents included SMU’s All-Americans Kyle Rote and the legendary Doak Walker, Clyde Scott at Arkansas, and Rice’s Tobin Rote; and
WHEREAS, Orein Browning played the position of blocking back and wearing Number 24 on his jersey, lead the way for Lindy Berry to become an All-American; and  
WHEREAS, Orein Browning taught and coached at Carter Riverside High School four years where his warm personal charm coupled with his composure, patience, calm, cool, and collected manner, not only won the respect and admiration of students and players, but provided a wholesome and enduring model of the most important quality of a human being – character; and
WHEREAS, Orein Browning moved from the classroom and playing field to the world like “Habitat for Humanity” building houses, yet he has never forsaken his heritage at Carter Riverside, for he remains a part of us, and we, gratefully, are a part of him;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it
RESOLVED THAT we, the Class of 1952 of Carter Riverside High School of Fort Worth, Texas, at its Sixtieth Reunion on the 2nd day of June, 2012, do hereby declare and proclaim that Orein E. Browning be an honorary member of the Carter Riverside High School Class of 1952 with all rights and privileges thereof.

 

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